Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Tuesday referred to the black history of minority killings in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past and showed a mirror to those questioning the justice deliverance saying that their tenure had witnessed gruesome killings and massacres of the minorities yet justice continued to elude them for decades.
The LG was responding to a statement that the killing of remaining minority Pandits whose numbers could now be counted on fingertips would continue unless “justice” was done.
He said this statement was “bewildering” as well as “intriguing”.
“A commander of a Talibani faction known for indiscriminate killings by attacking hospitals, schools, even congregations to mourn the dead, when asked, if it doesn’t make them unpopular and if it doesn’t make them lose moral ground, gave an honest reply: ‘We are not good at giving public services like water, electricity, hospitals, roads, and schools. We can only give a sense of security. How can we give that unless we create insecurity? What the Taliban commander hinted was people must be made to feel that both – the common man and the powers that be should know that they matter and unless brought back to power, neither common man nor the authority can rest in peace,” the LG said.
Regarding the minority killings in the recent past, he presented a brief fact-check report on massacres of minorities.
“In 1997, in Sangrampora in Budgam seven Kashmiri Pandits were killed. In 1998, in Wandhama, Ganderbal, 26 Kashmiri Pandits were killed. In 1998, in Prankote, Udhampur, 26 Hindus were killed. In 1998, in Chapnari, Doda, 25 Hindus were killed. In 2000, in Chattisinghpora, Anantnag, 35 Sikhs were killed. In 2000 during the Amarnath Yatra, 32 persons including 21 Hindus and seven Muslims were killed. In 2001 in Ladder, Kishtwar, 17 Hindus were killed. In 2002, in Qasim Nagar, Jammu, 29 Hindus were killed. In 2002, in Kaluchak, Jammu, 23 Hindus were killed. In 2002, in Raghunath Temple Jammu attacks, 11 persons were killed,” he said.